Wordsworth on Poetry

It's always interesting to listen to writers give advice and perspective on their artform. I remember reading once that Virginia Woolf believed that a woman only needed a room to herself and 500 pounds a year in order to write. In the reading, William Wordsworth does just this. The Preface of his "Lyrical Ballads" includes a long and detailed discussion of what makes good poetry and how to distinguish a true poet from any other writer.

"It' is supposed, that by the act of writing in Verse an Auther makes a formal engagement that he will gratify certain habits of association (206)." This opening line struck a chord with me. Is this really the first step toward understanding what sorts of poetry are truly affective? Is ths best kind of poetry the kind that seems to communicate what you had expected, without you knowing that you had expected it? Perhaps the best example of this is rhyme. Often with lullabies or children's poems, the rhyme scheme is very simple, but still something easily rememered and persistently popular. Is this what it means to spark "habits of association?" It sounds as hough poetry through Wordsworth's eyes has the ability to be amind game, making us think, "Oh, I probably would hav said that too if I just had the right words!"

One of my favorite poems is "For a New Mother" by Dorothy Parker. The poem begins by descibing a young mother who has just given birth and goes on to ask if she will sing silly lullabies to him like any other mother. The speaker wonders if it will be difficult for the mother when her son is persecuted in his thirties. In the ed, it is obvious to the reader that Parker is speaking of Mary and and her son, Jesus. She presents the poem as if it is just an observation on a new mother and whether or not she will be just like the other mothers of the world. Maybe Parker's intention in wriing the poem was to show that the "habits of association" in reading about a young woman who has just given birth to her first child is the same association of the Virgin Mary.

When Wordsworth discusses what it is a poet actually does, he states, "He considers man and the objects that surround him as acting and re-acting upon each other, so as to produce an infinite complexity of pain and pleasure (211)." Don't all writers do this in some capacity? We create characters by drawing images of them in the world by which they are surrounded. How a character responds to different enviornments, people, relationships, and conflicts describes the nature of their personality and gives the reader a clear picture of how they might act in reality. What does it mean to "produce an infinite complexity of pain and pleasure?" It is accepted that all human beings are exceptionally complex, so why doesn't he explore the complexities of contentment or anger? We know that our daily human emotions do not just focus on pain and pleasure. I suppose that you could assume that all humans seek pleasure and actively avoid pain. Maybe this is what Wordsworth is trying to say with this particular passage. He almost describes a basic economic guidepost: People will rationalize actions of self-interest and all people make decisions that are specifically rational to them. I know that this statement in the Preface is very fleeting and seemingly unimportatn, however, I was struck by his direct use of "complexity of pain and pleasure." He seems to have hit the nail on the head, so to speak.

Wordsworth refers to another great poet in his description. He states, "Emphatically may it be said of the Poet, as Shakespeare hath said of man, 'that he looks before and after (211).'" Maybe the poet sees the person not for where they currently are in the world, but where they have been and where they are going. His poem "We Are Seven" could serve as an example for this. In the poem, the "little cottage girl" refuses to acknowledge her currect situation that reveals the death of many of her siblings. The litter girl only recognizes the brothers and sister that she has had in the past and the ones that she will have in the future when she rejoins them in heaven. Perhaps this litter girl is an example of the persona that Wordsworth believes is "poetic." She looks at the past and future, but not at the present in expressing her impressions.

The final stanza solidifies her stubbornness:

"But they are dead; those two are dead!
Their spirits are in heaven!"
'Twas throwing words away; for still
The little maid would have her will,
And say, "Nay, we are seven!"